Apparatus for change speed of motor-cars



S. TAMURA AND M. WATANABE. APPARATUS FOR CHANGESPEED 0Fl MOTOR CARS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG- l. 191B.

Patented Aug. 3,1920'.

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S. TAMURA AND M. WATANABE. APPARATUS FOR CHANGE SPEED 0F MOTOR CARS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG- I, I9I8.

Patented Aug. 3, 1920.

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EN NN Q UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

.SHINKICHI TAMUBA, OF KOBE, AD IMASANORI WATANABE, 0F TOKYO, JAPAN; SAID WATANABE ASSIGNOR TO SAID TAMURA.

APPARATUS FOR CHANGE SPEED IOIE' MOTOR-CARS.

Specification of letters Patent.

Application tiled August 1, 1918. Serial No. I247,884.

- and MAsANoRr VVA'IANABE,l subjects of the Emperor of Japan, and the former residing at No. 11 Nakayamate-Dori Gochome, Kobe, Japan, and the .latter at No. 39 Takecho, Shitaya, Tokyo, Japan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Change Speed of Motor-Cars, of which the following is a specification.

The invention comprehends generally improvements in' that class of inventions known as machine elements and more .particularly relates to a variable speed gear'- ing especially adapted to motor cars.

The object of the invention is to provide an apparatus o the above mentioned'character, the construction of which is comparatively simple, and permits of the changing of the4 speed of the car more easily than such action is accomplished by other types of variable speed gearing.

Briefly the invention may be said to consist of several sets of `planetary gears, for

linstance, for high, low and reverse speeds,

mounted on drums, which with ythe gears are compactly arranged in a single oil containing casing, the parts 4being arranged so that the different speed gearing normallyy mesh with the driving or Amotor shaft and the driven shaft1 but only transmit motion from one shaft t0 the other when one of the selectively controlled drums is clutched or held against rotation. In addition there is provided a brake at the outside `of the casing and this brake as well as the gears are controlled in operation by a single lever mechanism operating in conjunction with a single sliding arm. The anrangement 0f the parts is such that, not only the different speed gearing may be operated at will, but also, when the brake is operated, any gear. transmitting motion is automatically separated from either the ,driving or driven shafts to stop such transmission motion.

One form of the invention is clearly illus? trated inthe accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 'is asectional view taken on line 1-1 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a sectional' view taken on the line 24-2 in Fig. 1 and looking in the direction in which the arrow points.

Fig. 3 is an end elevation, partly in sec.

tion, the latter being taken on the line 3 3 inFig. 1.

4Patented Auge, 1920.

Fig. 41s a side, elevational detail of a part of the improved apparatus, and.

Figa is a plan view of the same. Similar characters of reference are 'employedfin all of the above described views to indicate corresponding parts.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings there is provided a motor or driv- 1ng shaft 1 preferably rotated by the motor of the 'cars through suitable gearingA (not y shown). A second shaft 2 is provided through the speed changing apparatus according to this invention and transmits the power of the motor to the axle of the rear wheels of the car throu h 'a bevel gear or other suitable gearing, gnot shown). The projecting end of'the shaft 1 enters into a recessed portion at the end of the shaft 2 and is supported by ball bearings 3 to facilitate the relative rotation.

arrangedV a set of planetary gears. The

The drums LABl and C are employed and in each is center pinion 5 in the drum A is fixed. to the l shaft 1 and planet gears 6, which are geared with the pinion 5,-are fixed to shafts 7 journaled in bearings ofthe same drum A. The planet gears or wheels 8, fixed upon the,said shafts 7, are geared with the central pinion 9, which is fixed to the shaft 2. The drum A, after receiving these members, istclosed by a cover A which is' fixed thereto by means of bolts A while the boss of the drum is loose on the shaft 1. In the drum B, the planet gears 10, fixed to the common shafts |7, are geared with a center pinion 11 which is fixed to the boss of the drum B. The boss of this drum Bis loose on the shaft 2. In the drum C, the lanet gears 12 fixed -to the common shafts g are geared with a center ge'ar -13' which is fixed to the boss( of the said drum C. The boss of this drum, like in the cases of the other bosses, is loose on the shaft 1. In the example shown, three sets of planetary gears are provided for one center wheel, but` asapparent, they may be varied in number at 23, the sliding piece 21 bears against one of the operating rods 14, 15 or 16', thereby tightening the brake band to stop the rotation of the drum. When the sliding arm 23 isbrought midway between the operating rods, none of the bands operate. Therefore, if the vsliding piece 2l is brought to bear upon the rod.14 to cause the brake band'14 to stop the drum A, the shaft 7 will be fixed and accordingly planet gears 6 and 8 will rotate without revolving around the center pinion 9. As a result the rotation of the shaft 1 is transmitted to the shaft 2 by a certain reduced ratio through the gears and pinions 5, 6, 8, and 9. This mayl be called the first reduced speed. In this case, however, though the'gears 10 and 12 in the drums B and C gear with the center pinions 11 and 13, yet these central pinions can rotate freely, and therefore they have'no effect upon the said ratio of speed changing. When the said sliding piece 21, however, is separated from the rod 14 and brought to bear upon the rod 15 the drum A is ac-v cordin ly released and theu drum B tightened or bra ed, so that the motion of the shaft 1 is transmitted to the pinion 11 through the pinion 5 and gears 6 and 10. In this case, the shaft 7 will not remain stationary but will rotate around in the diretion shown by the arrow X in Fig. 2. The speed of the lrotation of the shaft 7 in that direction,

however, is effected by the central pinion 11 which is fixed and the corresponding -planet gears 10 which revolve around the'pinion 11.

Thus in this example, the speed of the gears gears.

'10 will be reduced by the speed of the shaft 7. The shaft 2 must be rotated at the second reduced speed. In this case the central pinion 13 in the drum C will rotate freely and haved no effect upon the reducing of the spee y Again similarly, when the, drums A and B are freedor released and-fthe drum C is braked, the third reduced speed may be obtained on the same reason as in the former case wherein the drum B is fixed. In this case, however, the central pinion 11 in the drum B will rotate freely and haveno effect upon the reducing of the speed.

As above described, in this example, three kinds of reduced speeds can be obtained by stopping or braking one of the three drums ,at a time. The rate of the said speed reducing vcan be varied by suitably choosin the pitch circle of the respective inions and For instance,y the first reduced speed m'ay be one half, thesecond one fourth of the motor speed, and especially the third may give the car-a reversing travel. Moreover, as far as the number of the drums and gears are concerned they. may be increased or the purpose of obtaining additional and various s eeds.

-Two o the salient features of this. inventation of the drums will 'insure of the oil being deposited in an oil pocket 45, from lwhich 'it flows through passage 46 into chamber 47 and returns back to the casing 4 through a hole 48. 1 represents a fly Wheel fixed to the shaft 1. l

The said 'sliding arm 23 is fixed to a shaft 24.

This shaft 24 may be slid'by means of a. 85 hand shifting lever or handle (not shown) projecting on the side of the'drivers seat or at any other suitable position within convenient reach of the driver, and permits the arm 23 being brought to the desired position. The end of the arm 23 is engaged with the sliding piece 21, and by the movement of the arm 23, the piece 21 may be slid on a squared shaft 22 without any rotation. The shaft 22 is rotatably supported 95 on a bearing 22 which is provided on one side of the casing 4, and is furnished with a double-armed lever 24 at the outer end. At

the end of the short arm of lever 24', there is pivoted a rod 26, which is arranged in a tube 27. A coil spring 25 is arranged' about the rod 26,l and this spring is strongly compressed in the tube 27 while its tension may be easily adjusted. Thus the left end of the spring 25, in Fig. 3 bears against the left 105 end of the tube 27, while the right end thereof bears against a stopper 25 fixed to the rod 26 by means of a nut 26. There- .fore the rod 26 is acted upon by the spring so as to be always attracted from left to right in Fig. 3. vTherefore the lever 24 and the rod 22 fixed thereto have always a tendency to rock, in the direction of the arrow Y, on the bearing 22 of the rod 22, and thus the said sliding piece 21 on the rod 22 acts 115 as followszThe slidingpiece 21 compresses oneof the coiled springs encircling the'rod 14', 15 oi' 16', for instance spring 18 encircling the rod 14', in a direction from left caused by the operation of the sliding arm 23 as before mentioned, it is to be understood the rod 22 must first be rotated in a direction opposite to the direction indicated by the arrow Y or against the action of the lspring 25, and thus separates the sliding piece 21 from either of the rods 14, 15 or 16, so that the end of the sliding piece will not interfere with the said rods. For this purpose, tothe end of the long arm of the lever 24 a link 28- is pivoted, `,and to the other end of this link one end of a-crank lever 29 is pivoted. -This crank lever 29 is pivoted at point 30 on a bracketmade in one .piece or fixed to thecasing 4. The other end of the' crankl lever is, through levers 31, 32 and 33 connected to a working lever 34 pivoted to the shaft 35. There-I fore when the upper end of the lever` 34 is pulled by the foot or hand of the driver, the lever 34 willrock around the shaft 35 and accordingly pull upward by the arm of lever 29 which is connected to 31. This (motion is transmitted to the lever 24 which together with the shaft 22 is` rocked against the action of the spring 25, on the bearing 22 of the shaft. Thus, the sliding piece 21 is rocked as desired 'in a direction opposite to. the 'direction indicated by the arrow Y- and the slidin arm 23 may be brought to a desired position on the shaft 22.

Further in this invention, the working lever -34 may yalso be used to operate the brake apparatus which stops the rotation of shaft 2. This apparatus comprises a double armed lever 42-43 pivoted on the shaft 30, the shaft arm 43 of which is provided with a projection 44. The end of the long arm 42 is pivoted to one end of `a link 41, and the other end of the link 41 is pivoted to one end of a lever39, while in turn the other end ofv the lever 39 is pivoted to a rod 38. This rod l38 is the working rod for the brake band 37 which is intended to stop the brake drum D. The upper end of the brake bands .37 are suspended at the .point 36 on the casing and the lever ends 37 are engaged y bythe said rod 38. A coiled spring 38 encircles the rod 38 and is arranged between the ends '37 of the brake band sections. To thel extremity of the brake band at left in Fig. 3 one end of a rod 40 is connected while' the outer end of the rod 40 is in turn connected middle. osition of the rod 39 as shown at 40. lever 34 is operated beyond a certainr amount, the lever 29 will not come into contact with the projection fill/of the' arm 43,

from the shaft 1 to the shaft l lever, l

'ably mounted lever and the other portion herefore, until the working nism which actuates and thestop apparatus will have no action, but when the lever 29 is moved beyond the said amount it comes into contact with the projection rocked upwardly about the shaft30. This in turn causes the rod 39 to rock about the y.point 40 and ingconsequence cause a tightening of the brake band on the drum lD against the tension of the spring 38 vwhile at the same time, any of the speed change gear which may be working are automatically separated from the' motor shaft 1.

Claims:

1. In a variable speed gearing apparatus for motor cars, the combination with the driving and driven, shafts, of a casing surrounding the meeting ends of the shafts, drums loose on the shafts,` variable planetary gearings mounted in the drums and on the shafts, brake bands encircling the drums,

a slidably and rotatably mounted member designed to act in conjunction with any one of these bands, spring tensioned means associated with the member for causing an application ofany one of the brake bands, a brake drum on the 'driven shaft, a brake band surrounding the brake drum, and a lever mechanism desi nedl t0 be moved a predetermined extent for acting against the spring tensioned means to permit of an adjustment of the slidablemember and to actuaterthe last mentioned/brake band when moved beyond such predetermined extent.

2. Afri apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the spring tensioned means consists of a tube carried by the-casing, a slidable rod in the tube having one end Apivotally connected with a part of the lever mechanism, a stopper adjustably connected to the opposite end of the rod and a coil spring arranged about thev rod and within the tube having its ends bearing against the stopper and theinner en d of the tube.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein a rod square in cross section is rotatably mounted on the casing and designed to receive the slidable and rotatable member.

4. 'An apparatus as claimed in claim 1,

whereinl the lever mechanism includes a lever carried medially of its end on the element which supports the slidable and rotatable 44 the double arm lever 43"-42 is i a swingably mountedl manually operable y and a cennectioi between the swingof the bell crank lever. w

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein that portion of the lever mechamechanism has been moved a predetermined the brakes 'after the extent consists of a rod slidably arran ed swinging v'of the bell crank lever and a con between the ends off` the band on the rst sequent application of the band on the brake drum, an arm connected to one end of said drum 15 band, a lever pivoted to one end of the arm In testimonyy whereof'we have hereunto 5 and having one end pivotally connected to set our handsin presence of two subscribing the rod, a link pivotally connected to the opy Witnesses.

posite. enld of the lever, a pivotally mounted SHINKICHI TAMURA bell cran lever having one portion connected 'to the opposite end of the link, and a MASANORI WATANABE' 10 stud on the opposite portion of the bell crank Witnesses: y

lever and designed to be engaged by an- SUGAo Soep.,l

other part of the' mechanism to insure of a HIKOTARO SAGAN'A. 

